Page 3716 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 24 August 2011
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positive comments from people in the community for whom this issue really resonated and I would like to share some of those now.
An email from an Evatt resident said, “I am no longer a renter but I longed for this sort of legislation when I was renting.” A Ginninderra resident said: “Meredith Hunter’s Ginninderra electorate newsletter has brought to my attention the proposed basic standards for rental homes initiative. I think this is a good initiative to bring rental accommodation standards up to those expected in countries such as Germany where renting is the norm.” A Torrens constituent wrote:
I would like to thank you so much for what you have done for tenants in the ACT with your advocacy of minimum energy and water standards. It is one of the most positive and practically useful things for improving quality of life I have seen for many years in any area (and to the wider environment). I am a tenant too but at least with a decent income and in my work at the hospital I am aware of numbers of (often very unwell) tenants struggling to stay even minimally warm in Canberra winters. I frequently have to ask charities to pay some of their electricity bills.
And a Kambah resident says:
My partner and I are in a rental property (an old government house) in Kambah, with zero insulation, wooden floors and sheer curtains. The floors are admittedly OK in summer but for at least six months in the cold seasons they are really not OK. There is no insulation between them and earth outside. There is no insulation full stop. We have one Vulcan gas heater that heats the lounge/dining/kitchen (about 1 third of the house). The rest of the house is freezing and we can always see our breath condensing. Plus the outside walls are permanently dripping wet with condensation—that’s not an understatement either. I have already used bleach to clean large patches of mould from our bedroom wall, ceiling and bedroom furniture. The same thing is happening in the bathroom too. We have been advised by the real estate that this property is a long term rental for the owner. We have also come to realise that the owner is unwilling to part with any money to improve the standards of the property. We have been waiting over a month for approval to install a bayonet which will enable us to purchase an efficient gas heater for the rest of the house.
Of course, there were a few emails and letters that gave negative feedback to the bill. In the main, they were from people who thought no more costs should be put on landlords at all. However, it would be fair to say that the bulk of the feedback was positive and I think those couple of examples I have just cited demonstrate the very practical benefits that we are talking about and certainly the real experiences that some in the Canberra community are suffering where they are renting out substandard houses.
Aside from that, why do the Greens think we need this bill? Firstly, there are no minimum standards for rental properties. Current provisions do not mean that houses need to be warm in winter, cool in summer, be well ventilated, have flyscreens or deadlocks. Indeed, the current provision, which is “a reasonable state of repair”, effectively implies that whatever facilities the property offers are in good condition. But it fails to specify what specific facilities should be included.
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